~uest Autho~
to the Jews is well known. What he did to the
Christians is not so well known. The Nazis " Some such testing must be expected here.
fought the Christian Church with a variety ' The Apostasy has already begun. A subtle
of weapons. The most important was not but powerful delusion has occurred in its
overt persecution, but seduction. With his ideological and theoretical stage. It has
spell-binding oratory, Hitler won the hearts produced a social and cultural revolution
of professing Christians to his own world and is now beginning to affect law and
view. He was astonishingly successful. government. Our own countu has reached
the unstable point that Germany came to The means he used were his extraordinary
in the 1930s. All that is necessary is some powers of persuasion. Scripture calls it
kind of crisis and the stage is set for a "powerful delusion" (2 Thessalonians 2:9-
"charismatic" leader like Hitler to arise 12). "The coming of the lawless one will
and galvanize the secular potential into be in accordance with the work of satan
an anti-Judeo/Christian state. displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles,
signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil The bulldozer such a leader could build
that deceives those who are perishing. in the United States today would be a far There comes a time when God tests men's
more sophisticated, powerful and deceptive hearts. Germany had been in possession "II~ey perish because they refused to love
machine than the Nazis built in Germany. of the Bible since the Reformation began the truth and so be saved. For this reason
But the results would be the same. The m~h there in 1517. But had the German people ~od senda them a powerful delusion so that
of "Christian America" would be destroyed, loved the truth? A powerful delusion came they will believe the lie and so that they all
leaving a relatively small and persecuted about that revealed their hearts. The human will be condemned who have not believed
remnant of Believers. instrument of that delusion was Adolph the truth but have delighted in wickedness'."
Hitler. The nation as a whole believed the (2 Thess. 2:10-12) The hour may strike and has perhaps already
lie, delighted in wickedness and came under struck when God, to our discomfiture, but to The biblical term for this is apostasy. It means
God's condemnation in the judgments of His Glory, and for the salvation of mankind, rebellion against God. The classic passage is 2
World War II. will put an end to this form of existence Thessalonians 2:3, 4. The passage predicts a
because it lacks integrity and has lost its use. Hitler "was well aware," wrote William L great rebellion against faith in Yeshua (Jesus)
Shirer, "that the resistance to the Nazification in the Last Times, and suggests a repudiation Tragically, the lessons of Nazi Germany have
of the Protestant churches came from a of faith in God and loss of the love of God's not been learned. America today, like Germany
minority of pastors and an even smaller truth. in the 1930s, is a trap ready to spring, replete
minority of worshippers." Those who resisted, with anti-Semitic sentiment. Adaptation to a In his Berlin Diary, William L. Shirer, an
who would not be persuaded by his rhetoric, potentially hostile society and government in American reporter on the scene at a Nazi rally
Hitler harassed and persecuted as the political neo-pagan America is the most urgent issue in Nuremberg in 1934, likened it to a religious
climate permitted. What then was left of facing Believers in our country today. revival. The pageantry and symbolism,
Christian civilization after the Nazi bulldozer the dramatic, spotlighted entrance of the
'Don/ let aJ(l'one deceive rol/ /n an2' had run over the land of Germany? Those
Fuehrer and above all his impassioned /ca l: For the/)cO' will no/come un/// qlter who resisted this blatantly anti-Christian
speeches, created a fanatical following of lhe Al)osla<s\[l' has come and Ihe man who movement were a relatively small minority.
millions of hard-core Nazis and millions of separates himsel./.fi'om "l~mth has been Hitler demolished the myth of Christian
other Germans who were convinced enough revealed, lhe one des/#zed./br doom. lie Germany.
to cooperate or at least not oppose the Nazi will oppose hhnse!lto ee'erl'/hOg /ha/ people
The unlearned lesson in this terribly movement. adI a god or mahe an object gworship, he
significant era is that this is not merely a will pul h#nse(/above /hem all. so that he
German phenomenon. Historians look to will sit hi the 7~mple oJd'od and pro&#n
the uniqueness of the German historical /hal he h#nse/fis 6'od. "(2 Thess. 2:3,4 CJB)
experience to explain Hitler and the Nazis.
There still persists the naive confidence that
it can't happen here or at least that it can be
avoided here. The truth is, this is a spiritual
phenomenon related to a compromising
Church, at the close of the age. Germany is
not the first, only the most dramatic example
of a world wide anti-Christian uprising
predicted for the Last Times.
November/December 2004 Jewish Voice Today 7
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